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Discipling the Laity for Disciple Making (06)
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Paul Jang
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2008-03-24 03:27:36, hit : 3,658 |
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Discipling the Laity for Disciple Making (06)
The third step of involvement is participating in the life of a congregation. The people called as disciples must be upheld in Christian living through their participation in the worship, fellowship, and mission of a local church congregation (The Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church 1990, 125), while in the discipleship training program. They must not only become mature themselves but also give themselves on behalf of others.
The first successful disciple making absolutely depends upon whether the people called participate in the program or not. Participation is crucially important in making disciples for church growth. To make them participate in the disciple making program for church growth, the pastor must show his vision, and inspire, stimulate, excite, and encourage them. By doing so the pastor must motivate them to take part in the program for church growth.
The fourth step of involvement is baptizing. Of course, this may depend upon only the ordained pastor because only the pastor can baptize the people who confess Jesus Christ as their Savior in most denominations. The baptizing is necessary and clearly subordinated to make disciples (Shenk 1983, 230). Jesus commanded "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19).
Of course, unbaptized people may be participated in the disciple making program, but it is advisable that the only baptized persons take part in the program because of Jesus' command (Matt. 28:19), and of the order of the church. If the unbaptized people have been called in an unavoidable case, the pastor may teach the Christian doctrines, and baptize them for having been taken part in the program. The fifth step of involvement is assimilating. This is the first step for teaching and training courses.
There are people who have a very strong commitment to Jesus Christ but are not involved in the life of church activities (Schaller 1989, 78). Assimilation into the body of Christ is an important aspect of a person's own growth and the ultimate fulfillment of the Great Commission (Wagner 1989, 123). It is usually not difficult to join a church, but it is difficult to take part in church activities because a large percentage of the church members do not feel a sense of really belonging to their congregation.
Jerry McKinney did contribute much to the discipleship by teaching churches how to measure and monitor an ongoing process of assimilation (Hanks and Shell 1993, 80). He has analyzed that a high percentage left because they never really felt they were a part of our fellowship (Hanks and Shell 1993, 81). It shows that assimilating is so difficult without positive contact to invite them into their fellowship. Of course, prior to this they must be satisfied with spiritual needs in the Holy Spirit (Act. 2:42, 46) and physical needs in fellowship love (Act. 2:44, 45).
The most important thing in assimilation is to cultivate a sense of belonging to the church in them. In so doing they must be invited to the fellowship of the church. For the invitation must they come from the active members of the church. The face-to-face contact of the members is more effective (Schaller 1983, 20). For examples, Andrew contacted Peter (John 1:41), and Philip contacted Nathanael (John 1:43), and Samaritan woman contacted the people of the town (John 4:28, 29).
After this invitation to the fellowship, they must be filled with spiritual satisfaction and close friendship in warm love, and then must be organized into a disciple making group in order to be thaught and trained as disciples. Without this assimilation process, church members tend to settle into the role of mere spectators. The process of assimilation is not completed until a member has been fully integrated into the body and is actively participating in ministry to others (Hanks and Shell 1993, 90). Therefore the pastors need to make constant efforts to achieve assimilation.
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Introduction
Ch Growth 